1.75

This book was just bad. I almost feel like we got a second draft rather than a completed story. And I read Perkins' other YA thriller and loved it.

So the first 100 pages (which is half of the book, mind you) our two MC's basically just whine and complain and air all of their past grievances about their friendship.... in the middle of a trip in the wilderness. Firstly, when they talk about how strict their parents are, there's no way I see their parents letting them go on this trip, even with them "showing they could do it" in the back yard. And clearly the girls weren't ready for it because even they admit they "weren't paying attention" to how they'd done things, and also, neither of them even wanted to go. Who would put themselves in this ridiculously dangerous situation on a whim, when they didn't even want to do it?

The second 100 pages is utter nonsense. One of the girls sustains not one, but TWO traumatic injuries resulting in copious amounts of blood loss first injury is her leg snapping at the ankle, where it's basically just hanging on by the skin and the bone is protruding from her leg, second is she has her ENTIRE HAND shot off and yet is still up walking around and fighting the bad guys HOURS later.

And now we get to the worst part of this book. I'm not sure what writing style Perkins decided to use but it didn't work. She goes into moments of exposition during these high action scenes to give you snippets of the bad guy's backstory (which seems like she's trying to make us sympathetic to their lives prior?) and during these insanely high stakes moments the girls will just randomly be like "I wonder how long moss takes to grow... does it come out immediately or form under the surface for years and then just POP there it is?" <<< that's not a direct quote but a summation of something I remember, I don't own a physical copy of the book so I can't look back.

This whole writing style of just here's a smidgen of story and then here's this person's backstory and OH NO! traumatic event and then I think I'll whine some more about these unimportant things. And the end? God if you thought living through those injuries was outlandish, wait until you see the end. They're basically saved by a rampaging bear and able to escape. And then they hike down a mountain ONE OF THEM WITH ONLY ONE FOOT AND ONE HAND and rather than get in the car and getting themselves to a hospital, they take time to slash the tires of what they ASSUME is the bad guys vehicle.

Y'all know me. Even when I dislike/hate a book I typically can still recommend it to a specific kind of reader. I've got nothing here.

cover 3; characters 2; plot 1; pace 2; writing 2; enjoyment 1